The oh-so-popular Nissan Juke, which has sold like hotcakes since its inception nearly a decade and a half ago, has since been given a gentle, yet notable refresh. I reckon it’s pretty much a guaranteed top-seller for Nissan, this updated Juke does look pretty similar to last year’s Juke. So, I won’t blame you if you haven’t noticed any of those updates. Nonetheless, while it still has the same coat of paint, underneath, this new Juke gets a few neat upgrades. You now get a bigger screen, a fuller ADAS suite, not to mention a mildly re-touched interior. So, is it worth waiting out for this new Juke to hit your local Nissan showrooms, or just shop around the old one?
What Is The Nissan Juke N-Connecta About?
Speaking of, the styling of this latest generation Nissan Juke certainly deserves some praise, at least in my eyes. Sure, the old (first-generation) Juke had a rather polarising design and it definitely wasn’t liked by everyone, but they’ve completely flipped the script with this one. It has a small footprint, which you could tell right away it was made with narrow UK roads in mind. The petite size means that it’s not just incredibly manoeuvrable, but you’d have no issues parking it or driving it down a tiny street. On top of that, with the Juke’s tight turning circle, I do enjoy being able to move it around and let the Juke flow with the traffic around you with great ease.
However, with its muscular haunches and sporting silhouette, the new Nissan Juke still looks somewhat athletic from most angles. In this entry-level N-Connecta trim that we have here, it has a very eye-catching appearance, between the electrifying Magnetic Blue paintwork and the black contrasting exterior trim elements. It may look a tad nicer with a bigger set of wheels, I think. This N-Connecta trim includes, as standard, 17-inch alloys. With those chunky tyres keeping the rims gently cushioned against the myriad of potholes around my local B-roads, I say it’s a worthy compromise. And, those huge round headlights do an exceptional job at lighting the road.
How Does It Drive?
This new Juke employs a very clever self-charging hybrid set-up, paired with a 1.6-litre inline-4 petrol engine. No doubt, the boons of this sort of configuration make themselves known once you make a pitstop for fuel, to then find out that the Juke’s powertrain barely sips on petrol. Nissan claims an average (combined) fuel consumption of 58+ mpg. Although, in my testing – though bear in mind that I wasn’t particularly kind on it – I still managed to barely squeak by 50 mpg. I’d bet that if you could be a bit more careful with the throttle, you could probably get a lot closer to Nissan’s figures. This is rather impressive for a relatively affordable hybrid like the Nissan Juke.
It’ll even go the distance, too! With only half a tank of fuel, I eked out more than 200 miles during a road trip. By small crossover standards, that’s more than superb. I’d imagine it won’t cost a lot to fuel up the Juke, either. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want a hybrid, Nissan also offers the Juke with a more old-school ICE-only set-up. With this particular powertrain in mind, you’re getting a 1.0-litre inline-3 petrol engine. In addition, it could also be spec’d with either a 6-speed manual transmission or a 7-speed automatic. With our hybrid model here, you get a 7-speed DCT auto gearbox, which does a good job at shifting along smoothly and efficiently.
There are additional hybrid-specific controls that you can find near the gear lever. For example, you could force the hybrid to go EV-only, though with its small battery, it’s only good for very small distances. Aside from that, you may also turn on Nissan’s one-pedal “e-Pedal” mode. Driving it, though, there’s nothing to write home about with this new Nissan Juke. Then again, with a mere 143PS of power and 148Nm + 205Nm of torque respectively, between the engine and electric motor, it’s no speed machine, that’s for sure. Moreover, it will go from 0 to 62 mph in a relaxed 10.1 seconds, and onto a top speed of 103 mph. You won’t find much pace here.
In the real world, the Juke’s engine even feels a tad disconnected from the throttle in some ways. I’ve noticed a few moments where it would start revving as soon as I put my foot down, but it won’t really do much until I really pin the throttle and let it rev even higher. That should be enough time to give that poor engine some time to catch up to your throttle inputs. Realistically then, there’s not even some pretence of performance in the Nissan Juke. So, you’re not going to have much fun tearing up a good stretch of road. Moreover, if you’re trying to overtake on the motorway at speed – say, from 50 mph to 70 mph – the powertrain can feel a smidge underpowered.
But then again, it’s not that I expected much out of a compact crossover anyway. For commuting about the city and pootling around your local village or town, it is more than powerful and speedy enough. Besides this, given the Juke’s diminutive size, it does at least feel nimble and quick to dart around in, too. Ultimately, all I – and I’m sure most of the target audience – really want out of a Nissan Juke is smooth and efficient motoring, which this new and updated Juke more than excels at. Plus, steering on the Juke is light, making it effortless to drive. And, the suspension does great work with soaking up all those bumps on the motorway and my local roads.
What Is It Like Inside?
Although the Juke might appear tiny from the outside, Nissan did a great job with packaging. That’s all despite having to squeeze in a hybrid in there somewhere. The back seats have just about enough space to comfortably fit your kids in there. However, if you’re ferrying about 4 full-sized adults at a time though, it might be a tad too small for that. Meanwhile, the Juke’s boot is adequately large enough for hauling around groceries and luggage for a weekend away. All in all, the Nissan Juke is a surprisingly practical car, despite the comparatively tiny form factor. Elsewhere in the cabin, this is where you’ll easily notice most of the upgrades from last year’s Juke.
In particular, you now get an upgraded set of displays, with twin 12.3-inch screens for your infotainment system and the gauge cluster, respectively. Those bigger screens do look very good to the eyes… The resolution is sharp, the colours are vivid, and Nissan’s user interface is arranged quite cleanly. The digital gauge cluster is especially legible and easy to read, and here, you might also spot some hybrid-specific instruments, like the battery gauge. Similarly, the now-enlarged infotainment display is a treat to my eyes, with a much-welcomed increase in screen real estate that you can work with. It also comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, too!
I’m also a fan of the more simplified switchgear layout, with tactile physical knobs and buttons for all your vital car functions, like the media controls and fiddling about with the climate control. Granted, the aforementioned climate controls are a tad primitive on the N-Connecta trim, without dual-zone A/C, which I’m used to seeing on a lot of cars these days, even cheap ones. Other than that, another slight complaint from me is how the volume knob doesn’t light up, making it harder to find in the dark. Otherwise, if you look around the centre console, you’ll also spot some faux carbon fibre trim around the start/stop button and the cupholders, which do look nice.
This new and updated Juke, in this entry-level trim, even comes with a wireless charging pad for your phone, so that’s a neat add-on. In N-Connecta spec, the Juke comes fitted with cloth seating and upholstery, so while this doesn’t look especially luxurious, it feels and looks great to sit on. It ought to be a bit more durable than leather too, which I feel is ideal if you’re planning to use this as your family runabout or daily driver. On that note, the rest of the Juke’s interior is quintessentially Nissan, with its smart, well-packaged, utilitarian layout and a ton of hard plastic trim. The latter should stand the test of time and hold up to wear and tear rather well.
The Experience
The Nissan Juke comes as standard with an array of safety systems. These include all your usual suspects, such as intelligent emergency braking, lane-departure warning, a lane intervention system, traffic sign recognition, high-beam assist, as well as a driver attention alert system to ensure that you’re keeping your eyes on the road. With our trim here, it doesn’t include adaptive cruise control, though the regular cruise control works fine enough for daily driving it. Furthermore, the Juke comes with front and rear parking sensors, as well as a very crisp backup camera. The latter of which takes full advantage of your now-enlarged infotainment display.
Besides that, the Juke’s keyless entry system worked flawlessly at automatically unlocking and locking when I’d approach or walk away from the Juke. This isn’t something you can say with all keyless entry systems, so I thought that’s worth mentioning. Additionally, for all you audiophiles out there, for such an attainable car like this Juke, I’m impressed with the sound system! It has shockingly good audio quality and booming bass that comes out of those speakers. One other noteworthy point that’s worth remembering too, once you drive the Nissan Juke, is that new regulations mandate a tonne of those aforementioned safety systems need to be turned on by default.
As such, you may notice that the Juke bongs and beeps way more than you would normally expect, as all those safety systems, such as the lane-assist systems and speed limit warnings have to be enabled. On the bright side, Nissan does offer quick ways to turn these off through the steering wheel controls, and there is even a shortcut where you can assign and personalise the safety systems even further. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the best you can do to disable those systems from chirping at you all the time, had you left them running. Ultimately, it does help to keep you safe on the road, and as we’ll look at later, there are additional, optional ADAS systems.
Nissan Juke N-Connecta Cost
Our updated and refreshed Nissan Juke here is spec’d in the N-Connecta trim, one level up from the entry-level Acenta Premium trim. That said, this certainly is not the poshest trim that you can get for the Juke, but you still get a lot for the money, and there’s more than enough ‘car’ here for most folks to easily get by with. Elsewhere, there aren’t a lot of options that you could spec for the Juke N-Connecta, either. There is this paint finish, which for £1,145 is quite a bit expensive, but it does look rather good. Other than that, the Juke can be optioned with the Heat Pack for £395. This adds heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and a heated windscreen.
That ought to be important for folks looking for a more winter-ready commuter. You could also spec the ProPILOT pack for £1,300, which adds additional safety systems and driving assists. As such, you should also consider ticking this option if you value having a 360-degree camera system, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, and even nice-to-haves like their moving object detection system and a traffic jam pilot feature. That’s quite a lot of systems for the price tag, so I’d consider tossing that in with my Juke, too. For a starting price of £25,500, the Juke N-Connecta is an attractive value proposition.
Verdict
Overall, this year’s Nissan Juke gets some minor, yet noticeable and welcomed upgrades over the old one. That, if anything, only further solidifies my impression that the Juke is a superb bang for buck. There aren’t a lot of cars in that mid-£20,000 price bracket that offers this much practicality, versatility, tech, and refinement. That same old hybrid we got in prior Jukes and other Nissans continues to showcase just how far hybrids have come, with a mighty amount of fuel efficiency. Plus, with the interior and safety systems only getting better from there, I can think of very few other cars that I’d be able to more easily recommend to folks looking for a good daily driver!
Specification
Nissan Juke N-Connecta Specs
- Price: £25,500
- Engine: 1.6-litre, inline-4 hybrid
- Power: 143 PS
- Torque: 148Nm + 205Nm
- Transmission: 7-speed DCT automatic
- 0-62mph: 10.1 seconds
- Top speed: 103 mph
- Weight: 1,341kg
- Economy combined: 58.5 mpg
- CO2: 109 g/km